Saturday, January 26, 2013

what harbowl means to me

My mind is blown. The Niners in the Super Bowl?! I admit, before last season, my attitude toward the Niners was tepid at best, but mostly not even that. I grew up as a Niners fan, as a Bay Area child of the 80s and early 90s. Funny I never paid attention to the Raiders, having grown up in the Easy Bay. I used to tear out the centerfolds of players from the Sports Illustrated for Kids that we would borrow from the library - Ronnie Lott, Roger Craig and Jerry Rice among them. My middle school PE teacher used to call me John Taylor because of my mad receiving skillz. While the team sucked in the latter half of the 90s and through, well, the 2000s, until about last season, my interest waned, and then I married a Steelers fan. Good thing the Steelers organization is one that's easy to like.

But now! Now, they're back! ...and good thing they're facing off with the Ravens because had it been the Steelers, my allegiance to both teams would be strained. I wouldn't know what I would do. Funny how this match-up is one between brother coaches, and two cities that are similar in more ways than one. They both are cities by bays (though SF is far more superior in city, bay, and crabs), they both have significant minority populations (Baltimore has a minority majority), and they both are in regions in which I have spent the majority of my years. Unfortunately, I'll be watching the game on the East Coast where Niners fans are far and few between...but sometimes, that makes it even more fun.

A great Super Bowl party idea is to have a crab taste test: Dungeness vs. Maryland Blue Shell